MARG1/1

Rhys/1873, 8: `Aug 27. --...From this stone we went up Margam mountain, a distance of some three miles or so, to see the stone called Carreg Lythyrenog. It stands erect on the mountain not far from a little pool called Llyn-dwr-mawr'.

Westwood/1876, 22: `The description and figure published in Bishop Gibson's edition of Camden's Britannia, from, as there is reason to believe, the communication of Edward Lhwyd, of an early inscribed stone on the top of the mountain north of Margam Abbey, induced me to hunt for this interesting monument, when I traversed the mountain in different directions for several hours...I might indeed have lost my labour had it not been for the information given me by a passer-by: for the stone itself had been thrown down and no longer presented that striking mark for observation which it must have done when erect.[1]...when I visited it, [it was] lying amongst the stones still remaining of this tumulus.

[1] Thanks to the elegant poetical remonstrance on the overthrow of this stone published in the Arch. Camb. 1853, p. 78. the stone has been re-erected'.

Macalister/1945, 384--385: `Formerly on the summit of Ton Mawr, a height in Mynydd Margam, at the head of the tributary of Afon Cynfigg; but now carried down to Margam Museum and there deposited.[1]...The stone was removed to its present position because modern persons of the same category [i.e. `ignorant common people'], aggrieved, presumably, by a strong iron railing which had been erected to protect it from sacrilegious hands, had been amusing themselves by firing revolver shots at it'.

[1] A cast of the stone has been set up on the original site'.

RCAHMW/1976, 37: `formerly standing on a low mound (I i 271) on Mynydd Margam at 340m above O.D. when it was known as `Carreg Kythyrogg'.[1]...The stone had been mutilated by modern graffiti and an O.S. bench mark before being moved to Margam Museum, its present location. It has been replaced by a modern replica.

Margam Stones Museum (Cat: no. 3)Knight/1999, shows that this stone is now in the Margam Stones Museum on the ground floor, marked as number 3. Nash-Williams/1950, 146: `The stone is in Margam Abbey Museum'.

cross-markedWestwood/1879, 22--23: `The stone is nearly 5 feet high, 1 1/2 foot broad, and nearly a foot thick. The top is rather slanting, and bears an incised cross of the Maltese form, from the bottom limb of which a line extends to the F at the beginning of the second line of the inscription, whilst the face of the stone bears an inscription'.

Westwood/1876, 23: `notwithstanding the affirmation of the ignorant common people of the neighbourhood, that whosoever should happen to read the inscription would die soon after'.

Macalister/1945, 385: ``The ignorant common people' in the neighbourhood of this stone promise (according to Gibson) or firmly believe (according to Gough) that whoever happens to read the inscription shall die soon after. `Let the Reader therefore take heed what he does (says Gibson); for if he reads it he shall certainly dye' -- a warning softened down by Gough to `with this assurance let the reader, therefore, attempt it if he dares''.

RCAHMW/1976, 37: `On the upper surface of the stone is an incised cross form (Fig. 6, m) which is not necessarily later than the inscription.[2]

[2] Two slabs with small additional crosses similarly placed on the upper edge are recorded at Kilberrihert, Co. Tipperary (P. O. Heailidhe, `The Crosses and Slabs at St. Berrihert's Kyle' in North Munster Studies)'.

400 - 550 (Westwood/1876)Westwood/1876, 24: `As regards the date of this stone, the late Taliesin Williams, in a letter to me, considered it. to be `about A.D. 300, if not earlier.' Considering, however, that the formula and orthography are debased Roman, it may more probably be of the fifth or early part of the sixth century. `The palaeographical character of the two inscriptions on Plate XIII [this stone and Kenfig], as contrasted with those on the following Plate [Baglan, Margam and Bryn Keffneithan], is markedly distinct, and clearly indicates a much earlier date to be given to the two former stones.'533 - 599 (Jackson/1953)Jackson/1953, 291: `mid or later sixth century'.

Language:

Latin (rcaps)

Ling. Notes:

Rhys/1905, 79, regards this inscription as a `curtailed hexameter of five feet'. He goes on to state: `Pronepus stands for pronepos; in fact nepus also occurs for nepos'.

Palaeography:

Westwood/1879, 23: `entirely in Roman capitals, with the exception of the h in the first line...(all the A's being turned upside down.

On carefully looking at this inscription several peculiarities are noticeable, the most important of which is the Greek cross incised upon the truncated top of the stone'. Rhys/1905, 79: `The inscription is in capitals, except the letter h, two of the final i's are horizontal, and all the a's are upside down; fi and li are represented by ligatures, but the letters are otherwise better cut than the average of inscriptions of this kind'.

Macalister/1945, 385: `The H is half-uncial. All the A's are inverted, and the FI, LI of FILIVS are ligatured as usual. The penultimate letter is ambiguous; it might be V quite as well as L'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 146: `Roman capitals...with half-uncial H and three ligatures. The A's, with angular cross-bar, are all inverted. The R's in l. 3 have a short, nearly horizontal tail. FI and LI in ll. 2 and 3 are ligatured. The first and last words have the horizontal final -I'.

RCAHMW/1976, 37: `The lettering is almost entirely in Roman capitals with a single half-uncial H; the A-s, with angular cross-bar, are inverted, and the R-s in the third line have a horizontal tail. For the `S' form of G, compare No. 843. There are three ligatures, FI and LI (twice), and the horizontal terminal I occurs twice, in the first and last words'.

Bodvoci (Language: Brittonic; Gender: male)
Jaskson/1953, 290--291 discusses the name Bodvoci. Following a Gaulish example of Bodvacus he suggests that Bodvoci may show o for a. However, he also suggests that -vocus and -vacus may actually be two different suffixes. Jackson is also wary of using the spelling Bodvoc found on early British coins as evidence for sound-changes in British.

Westwood/1879, 23: `Gibson added the following explanations in support of his reading: `...(vide Reines. Syntagma Inscript. p. 932)...In the work of Reinesius above referred to we find the epitaph of one Boduacus, dug up at Nismes in France, whereupon he tells us that the Roman name Betulius was changed by the Gauls into Bodvacus, but it may seem equally probable, if not more likely, since we also find Bodvoc here, that it was a Gaulish or British name; and the name of the famous queen of the Iceni seems also to have the same original'. It must now be added that, since the days of Camden, coins both of gold and silver, doubtfully supposed to be of British origin, have been found with the name Bodvoc upon them (Ruding's Coinage, British Series, App. pl. 29, and see my notes thereon in Arch. Cambr. 1859, p. 291). The name Bodvognatus is also mentioned by Caesar, De Bell. Gall. iii. 23''.

Rhys/1905, 79: `Bodvoci is the gentive of the Brythonic Bodvo~co-s, a name met with abbreviated as BODVO, BODVOC, BODVOS on coins found mostly in Gloucestershire and the West of Oxfordshire...Bodv-o~co-s was the Brythonic form of what was Bodva~co-s, genitive Bodva~ci in Gaulish'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 146: `The name Bodvoc is met with elsewhere on early British coins of the 1st century B.C. found in the Oxfordshire-Gloucestershire region and on Roman Samian vessels as the stamp of a potter Bodvocus, who worked at Lezoux in Gaul in the mid-2nd century A.D.[2]

Catotigirni (Language: Brittonic; Gender: male)
Jackson/1953, 279, 446 and 645 discusses this name. At p. 645 he suggests that the spelling of o for u in the composition vowel may reflect a reduction in this vowel, and hence an early sign of syncope, or loss of the composition vowel. Rhys/1905, 79--80: `Catotigirni stands for the genitive of Catutegernio-s, which makes in Welsh Cattegirn and Catëyrn `war-lord or battle-prince''.

Eternali (Language: Latin; Gender: male)
Jackson/1953, 192--193, argues that ETERNALI has been carved for a correct Eternalis. Also see p. 291. Westwood/1879, 24: `Aeternalis as a proper name occurs in sepulchral lapidary inscriptions, as may be seen in Smith's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, vol. i p. 856: Eterni also as a proper name occurs on one of the inscribed stones at Llannor in Carnarvonshire, as well as at Clydai'.

Rhys/1905, 79: `Eternali for Aeternalis, derived from Aeternus, which , as Eternus, genitive Eterni, occurs more than once in our inscriptions in Wales'.

Vedomavi (Language: Brittonic; Gender: male)
Jackson/1953, 440, 444, 482 argues that this name provides evidence of Primitive Welsh *maw from *magu; that it helps to demonstrate that g>u had occurred by the later sixth century and that M was actually used for the sound µ. Rhys/1905, 80, regards this name as a place name, not a personal name, with magos meaning `field or plain', and provides a long commentary.

Jackson/1953, 440, and 444, treats the name as Brittonic.

Vedomali (Language: Incomplete Information; Gender: male)
As read by Macalister/1945, 385, but he notes that it could easily be Vedomavi.